Walvis Bay

Historical map of Walvis Bay, showing the former borders.

Walvis Bay is a town on the Atlantic coast of western-central Namibia, with 46,000 inhabitants. The country's only deep-water sea port, it handles some 800 ships and two million tonnes of cargo annually.

Following South Africa's occupation (1915) of South-West Africa during World War I, Walvis Bay was administered jointly with South-West Africa from 1922 until 1978. South Africa retained control of the enclave for four years after South-West Africa's independence as Namibia (1990), ceding it to that country on March 1, 1994.